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IS TODAY’S SPIRITUALITY FAKE?
Cho Tab Khen Zambuling
If you happen to enter the Internet, and put the word “spirituality” in Google, you will find an infinite number of references/citations. If you put the words “spirituality, meditation, and yoga” you will find billions of citations. If you put the words “spiritual teachings” you will find millions of citations. And if you put the words “spiritual centers, organizations” you will find also many citations. You can multiply to the power of ten if you add the word “religion” into the hopper.
In this era of information and informatics, open to all, any one may open a blog, or a website, or any form of cybernetic space, to bring information to the people. In this case, I am talking about spiritual information, recommendations, teachings, advice, etc. Anyone has the possibility to open that space and make a mark on so-called spirituality. This has allowed many of us to have access to an incredibly important list of writings, teachings, sacred texts, translations from languages we do not know (like Pali, Sanskrit), etc.
During my 4 months of silent retreat, access to Google was essential. I had to review, learn, and practice a series of teachings that I would have never been able to do without the Internet. Thus, I applaud this information revolution as it has democratized fundamental knowledge that otherwise, would not be available to the masses.
However, there is another face to this information revolution. This is a major warning! And, I would like to express this warning via a very fundamental question: “Are those teachings valid, real, correct, or useful?” Not easy to say, because I have no time to browse, open, read, understand, realize and understood all that is available. Nobody can.
But I started studying the references to my own teachings, and to look into some sites that quote me, use my material without permission, copy and make them theirs, or misused them. That I could evaluate and judge and my conclusion is very disheartening. I will not elaborate on this personal quest any further.
There is another area that is even more complex, if not dangerous. When somebody is imparting teachings that are simple not proven true or effective. They do it in an immensely sophisticated way: attributing the foundation of those teachings to someone who was critically important like Christ or Buddha, who is not alive, and with whom one cannot check whether it is correct or incorrect. In addition, there are many quotations that are incomplete or out of context, like the people who empower themselves to quote some paragraph, out of 100 thousand paragraphs, from the Bible, and present some type of final truth. Like “God said…..”. But if one is to quote what God said in the Bible then, maybe, in another context, God said something completely different.
It is not possible to correct this situation, but it is important to warn now, not tomorrow, that the information revolution will bring a lot of chaos to our minds and souls, unless we do something about it.
The other syndrome in the Internet is that of offering quick fixes. Sometimes, these are great and one can advance rapidly. At other times, the quick fixes are neither quick nor fixes, and these are presented without explaining the real spiritual foundations of the supporting knowledge. For example, if you need to learn how to love well, you will indeed find “the 40 ways to be the best lover”, and as a result, you are expected to find the perfect man or woman. If you happen to have a problem as a result of your fears; you will also find the perfect ways to get rid of fear in the next 20 minutes. You may add to these examples the terms stress, toxicity, relationships, justice, love… No matter what problem you are facing today, the Internet has all the answers.
Do not take me wrong; there are many times when the Internet is a savior, or it provides information at no cost! However, something fundamental is missing.
Let me me get to those citations having to do with spirituality and spiritual centers. The population of these centers is immense, while we see that the world is still at the brink of a major economic disaster, war and conflict, environmental devastation, human insecurity, food poisoning, etc. We observe today that there is an immense supermarket of spirituality related commodities that are sold at various prices with various tricks for advertising. Yes, expensive jewelery that is going to be the solution to all your problems. Someone went to India, for example, and took a fifteen day course in the ancient art and spirituality of gems and, on return, wants to become rich in an instant. And, examples like this abound. They have grown in leaps and bounds.
Spiritual shopping is now in fashion. But, there are also lots of shopping-malls for knowledge. Most centers offer you nirvana, salvation, heaven, light, healing, etc. Some centers have mantras for sale; some of which are very expensive, I must say. There is now a ‘carry-out spirituality’. Just park on the Internet and pay at the window. It is amazing how much is there for people to taste and try: clothing, pendants, books, tapes, CDs, DVDs, travel to places, etc.
In my humble view, the fundamental question today is: how is spirituality and spiritual knowledge being authorized?
If I say “I am an economist”, some one could say, “where did you get your diploma”. In some sense, the diploma and the institution that gave it represent the element that authorizes my claim to be an economist. In this case, I cannot serve myself and just be self-normative (sign my own diploma). There are norms and standards.
In respectable magazines and journals there is a board of editors and also reviewers who somehow ensure that the quality of the product will not negatively affect that magazine or journal. They are the authorizing environment.
However, in the era of this information revolution, there are, and there will be, many fields of inquiry for which the authorization will rest directly on the general public. If you go to You Tube, for example, and you have a hundred options to chose from, most probably you will start with that video that has the largest number of hits. The one you feel the general public likes and, thus, has authorized. The same will happen when you look for the average number of stars that video has on the side or below. The one with 5 stars will have more attention than another with 2 stars only.
The question is, how does a normal person discriminate among so many sources of information? Can this person swim in this ocean of information and not drown as a result (inner drowning)? It seems impossible. How does one know what “the right view (understanding)” is? Do people have a system of checks and balances so that they get to realize the right view first and then decide what is truly the right information, and avoid the wrong one?
In my opinion, the self realization must come first!
But even if one finds what is believed to be the right information, what do you do with it? What is your intent? What language will you use to express it later on? What is the type of action you would like to support with that information?
In particular, the challenge is not only to find a mantra, a mudra, a posture, or anything else, but to understand where it fits and why; and, how would you apply it, given your own circumstances. Is it too much or is it too little?
In this information revolution, Does one size fit all? Do we have the capacity to calibrate the recommendations you find on the themes of spiritual growth and transformation? Maybe yes, maybe not.
There are people of different levels of consciousness and awareness. To say this, is a truism. But, because of that diversity in levels of consciousness, we also see the Internet full of information that is total garbage. And, millions of children are exposed to that information. This is a major issue for the world today. Children are not children anymore. They are forced to know so many things they do not have the capacity to process, discriminate against, or simply to know things that are plain wrong.
From an spiritual point of view, this massive wealth of information presents a major paradox for all of us. With this great abundance, how does one explain the little impact that the Internet is having in resolving the major problems facing humanity? How do we explain an infinite abundance of spiritual knowledge while we witness so many wars and conflicts around the world? How about poverty and hunger? How about global warming and ozone layer depletion? How do you justify the level of concentration of wealth; almost all in the hands of a very few?
There is no way to stop this information revolution. The only option is to develop our consciousness so that we regulate these spiritual markets and shopping centers, and create an authorizing environment that will lead humanity to the right collective destiny.
I see no other solution to stop all of that fake spirituality that is produced for purposes that are inappropriate. Let us not generalize, but also let us not discount the importance of transforming spirituality into another fad. Let us not allow this information revolution to debilitate true spirituality. This is the moment we need a strong, well founded, and impeccably imparted spirituality.
Let us not sell spirituality. Spirituality should not be for sale. I do not think that Christ or Buddha brought light and knowledge so that 2000 years later we would sell it, as if their contributions to humanity were beans or corn. Sooner or later all of this will catch up with us.
One accelerating factor towards the wrong direction is the new age language and the competition there is today to find new fancy words to express simple things, or to express what is pure and simply our reality. Many concepts are used now in social conversations because this is now the way to tell the other person that “you have something”. Listen to this short dialogue: “how are you?”; ‘not very well’; “why aren’t you well”; ‘ I believe it is karmic’.
I read the titles of conferences, and the titles of the papers submitted to those conferences on spiritual-related-matters and, to get the core message, many times I have to look for a dictionary. Or, even worse, there are moments when those titles make me feel so small, so ignorant, and so insignificant. I use the word “water” while other use the term “vibrational energy of liquid flows”.
The other day, I was reading the terms of reference of an organization dealing with leadership. After I finished, I had nausea. It was difficult to digest the words, meanings, and feelings, and what was conveyed. But, it read great!. It reminded me of an article in The American Economic Review, which was published many years ago (30 years ago, perhaps), in relation to how economists speak. The article had three columns, each with an abundant list of words. The joke was that you could combine any three words from each column and it will all sound logical or meaningful.
To me, it is evident that something is missing. Something is missing in this information revolution and, of course, something is missing in our spirituality (both, our individual and collective spirituality.)
I will not give you receipts, or quick fixer-uppers, as I will cave into the same hole I am raising awareness about. Perhaps the only element here to strongly suggest is to enhance your awareness, mindfulness, morality and concentration. Four states of being that go together. Be alert, be aware, be vigilant. And, when you open a new personal blog, or a new website, try to be real and provide seeds that will germinate happiness, love and compassion.
A teacher once told me to repeat to myself one-hundred thousand times the following Sutta: “The more I learn, the more I realize the magnitude of my ignorance.” He is totally right!
